TECH CHRONICLES

Published 4:00 am, Thursday, August 30, 2007

Popular sentiment might be turning a bit against virtual world Second Life from San Francisco's Linden Lab. But it's still generating some buzz, with a successful convention in Chicago last week and now some love from the reigning king of pop, Justin Timberlake.

Timberlake is set to offer some behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive video segments through Second Life starting today through the Labor Day weekend. The event, which is being sponsored by Comcast, culminates on Monday with Second Life airing the first 10 minutes of JT's big Madison Square Garden performance.

Today, Second Life will be showing 20 minutes of backstage interviews with Timberlake and his musical director, choreographer and band members. There will be another 20 minutes of footage on Saturday. On Sunday, there will be a 10-minute exclusive video called "The Dirt on the JT Tour."

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The capper is Timberlake's big performance in New York City. Second Life will show some previously aired preview clips at 5 p.m. and then the first 10 minutes of the concert at 6 p.m..

You can access the footage at Comcastic Island by visiting links.sfgate.com/ZRE. If you're not a member, you'll need to register.

Is the Google phone on its way?

After floating around as a rumor for many months, it appears Google might be close to revealing its plans for a mobile phone, according to several blogs.

Engadget is saying that Google will announce a new phone that will run a Google operating system sometime after this weekend.

The phone would build on Google's 2005 acquisition of Android, a mobile software company from the people behind the T-Mobile Sidekick. The thinking is that Google will supply the platform for a mobile phone that would allow it to easily layer on its search and other applications.

Google is available on a lot of phones now, but it's not the go-to built-in application on most phones. Having its own phone would help it extend its reach on search advertising.

CrunchGear is saying Google is working with HTC of Taiwan to develop a phone that would appear early next year. CrunchGear said the interesting thing is that the HTC/Google phone would have Google Talk enabled, allowing users to make free Internet phone calls.

Now whether this will fly in the United States is another matter. Google would have to negotiate a deal with the U.S. carriers, and they might not be keen on a phone from Google.

The Wall Street Journal reported this month that Google had shown a prototype phone to AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless, but it's unclear whether there were any takers.